The Maine Wire can exclusively confirm that ICE agents arrested an Angolan national who has been working as a York County Corrections Officer since 2024.
[RELATED: ICE Arrests Old Orchard Beach Police Officer from Jamaica for Overstaying Visa…]
York County Corrections Officer Mauro Inacio Bernardo is currently in ICE custody in Massachusetts and is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, according to ICE records.
The Maine Wire has confirmed that Bernardo is a York County Corrections Officer, using York County employment data obtained through a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request.
Those records reveal a Mauro I. Bernardo, who has been working as a York corrections officer since 2024.
A York County Commissioners meeting from March 6, 2024 shows commissioners approving the hiring of Bernardo, who started on March 11.
That further corroborates the ICE detention data, confirming that the corrections officer is from Angola.
That meeting revealed that Bernardo was a teacher in Angola and that he arrived in the U.S. in the spring of 2023. The corrections officer position was his first since entering the U.S.
At the meeting, county officials claimed that Bernardo was fully authorized to work in the U.S., though The Maine Wire cannot independently confirm that.
The Maine Wire reached out to ICE for more details on Bernardo’s arrest, but they did not immediately respond to a call or email.
As of Thursday afternoon, the York County Sheriff’s Department has not issued a statement regarding the incident.
The Maine Wire reached out to York Sheriff William King for a comment, but he did not respond immediately.
This is not the first issue Sheriff King has had with his corrections officers. The Maine Wire previously revealed that one of his officers was living with a fugitive at the time of the arrest.
Just one day after the publication of that article, King announced that three other corrections officers had been charged with accepting bribes from prisoners.
Reports and videos showed that a Cumberland County corrections recruit was detained on Wednesday evening.
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce confirmed that a corrections recruit from that county was detained but did not release his name or clarify why he was arrested.
